ACROSTICHUM. 



A. pehatum. Stiield Acrollichum. Willd. n. 26. 

 Swartz Syn. Fil. 11. Ind. Occ. 1593. (Ofmunda pel- 

 tata; Swartz Prodr. 127. Lichen digitatus, geranii facie ; 

 Plum. Fil. 141. t. 50. f. A. Hepatica digitata fungoides ; 

 Pet. Fil. n. 188. t. II. f. 3.)— Barren fronds in many 

 forked, linear, radiating fegments : fertile ones undivided, 

 roundiili-kidneylhaped, finely crenate. — Found on the 

 mofly trunks of trees, in Jamaica and Hifpaniola. Tiiis 

 remarkable little fern has the habit of a Trkhomanes ; or of 

 feme very fingular JungermannU, brought by Mr. Men- 

 zies from New Zealand. The trailing creeping root throws 

 up feveral ftalked, vertical, membranous, barren fronds, 

 deeply divided into two principal lobes, and each of thofe 

 irregularly into numerous, linear, fingle-ribbed fegments, 

 all Spreading like a fan. The fertile fronds are about as 

 tall, but fmaller, not an inch broad, roundifli, or fomewhat 

 kidney-fhaped, horizontal ; pale green and fmooth above ; 

 covered beneath with fmall, brown, (hining, annulated 

 capfu/es. 



A. alcleorne. Stag's-horn Acroftichum. Willd. n. 29. 

 Swartz Syn. Fil. 12. 17. and 196. Brown n. i. Ait. n. 3. 

 (" A. Stemaria ; Beauvois Fl. d'Oware, 2. t. 2." A. bi- 

 furcatum ; Cavan. Leccion. 241. n. 587. Neuroplatyceros 

 aethiopicus, nervofis foliis, cornu cervinum referentibus ; 

 Pluk. Amalth. 151. t. 429. f. 2. Cornu alcis Simbor 

 difta ; Bont. Hift. Nat. 121, with a figure.) — Fronds 

 fomewhat tufted, forked, coriaceous, ribbed ; downy at 

 the back ; from a peltate, leafy, fpongy bafe. — Native of 

 Guinea, Madagafcar, Java, and New South Wales, grow- 

 ing on the trunks of trees. This is a very large and ftriking 

 fpecies, attached to the trees, or fometimes to rocks, by a 

 peltate, dilated, fomewhat membranous, irregular, veiny, 

 lobed bafe, of a fhining brown, a foot in diameter ; tliin at 

 the edges ; thick and fpongy in the centre, where it is 

 fixed by downy branching radicles, and from whence it 

 throws up two or thsee ereft, flat, irregularly forked 

 fronds, a foot or two in height, rather dilated upwards, 

 entire at the edges, from one to two inches broad in the 

 different parts ; tapering at the bafe into a ftout, chan- 

 nelled, winged footflali. The ultimate divifions are level- 

 topped, hnear, bluntift, near a finger's length, each bear- 

 ing at its back, in the lower half, a broad, irregular, denfe, 

 naked mafs of innumerable brown capfuks, fo difpofed, in 

 clofe lines, that the whole mafs appears ftriated. The 

 whole frond is flrongly ribbed ; green and fmooth above ; 

 whitifh and downy beneath ; the ribs forked, fmooth, 

 reddifh. We cannot but think the fingular dilated bafe of 

 this fern is no other than one of its feminal leaves, or reputed 

 cotyledons, greatly enlarged, and more permanent than ufual. 

 Polypodium querctfolium of Linnjeus, Willd. Sp. PI. v. 5. 

 170, has fomething analogous in its barren /ron</f, which 

 are only advanced a ftep nearer towards the proper habit of 

 a fern. See Ger. Em. 1133. 



Seft. 3. Frond iernate. Two fpecies. 

 A. quertifolium. Oak-leaved Acroftichum. Willd. 

 n. 30. Swartz Syn. Fil. 12. Retz. Obf. fafc. 6. 39. 

 " SchkuKr Crypt. 2. t. 3." (Ofmunda trifida ; Jacq. 

 Coll. v. 3. 281. t. 20. f. 3.) — Fronds temate, bluntly 

 lobed ; fertile ones contrafted, linear-oblong, fomewhat 

 cut — Found on trees in Ceylon, by Koenig. A delicate 

 flender fern, whofe fmall, creeping, fcaly root fends up 

 feveral ereft fronds, from fix inches to a foot high, whofe 

 Aoviny flalks are alfo fcaly in their lower part. The termi- 

 nal leaflet is much the largeft, two or three inches long, and 

 one broad, in the barren fronds, with downy ribs and 

 edges, obtufe, flightly and varioutly finuated ; the lateral 

 .ones an inch long, rounded, fomewhat lobed. The fertile 



fronds have each a much taller fmoother ftalk, but their 

 leaflets are, as ufual, much fmaller and narrower, their 

 backs covered, except the ribs and margin, with minute, 

 ftalked, annulated capfules. 



A., auritum. Eared Acroftichum. WiUd. n. 31. Swartz 

 Syn. Fil. 13. and 198. (Filix florida ; Rumph. Amboin. 

 v. 6. 78. t. 35. f. I.) — Fronds temate, pinnatifid, cut; 



fertile ones doubly pinnate, with linear entire fegments 



Native of Amboyna and Java, growing among coarfe 

 graffes, on the banks of rivers. Rumphtus, Tliunberg. 

 Stalks from one to two feet high, flender, angular, fmooth, 

 black and fhinmg. Fronds fmooth, (lightly veiny, of three 

 principal leaves varioufly pinnatifid, lobed and cut, feveral 

 inches long ; the middle one largeft : the fertile fronds are 

 more compound, with extremely narrow hnear leajlets or 

 fegments. 



Seft. 4. Frond pinnatifid. Three fpecies. 



A. ferrulatum. Finely-ferrated Acroftichum. Willd. 

 n. 32. (Polypodium fufcura tenuiffimis denticuUs feiratura ; 

 Plum. Fil. 63. t. 81.) — Fronds deeply pinnatifid,; feg- 

 ments linear -lanceolate, parallel ; thofe of the barren ones 

 finely ferrated, of the fertile ones entire. — Gathered by 

 Plumier, in the forefts of Hifpaniola. The long, creeping, 

 nearly fmooth, blackifh root fends up ieverzl fronds, twelve 

 or eighteen inches high, on ftiortifh fmooth flalis. The 

 outline of each is lanceolate, taper-pointed, compofed of .a 

 great number of crowded parallel fegments, divided almoft 

 to the mid-rib, each fegment linear, acute, finely and 

 fharply ferrated, fmooth on both fides, thin and almoft 

 membranous, with a rib and many fimply forked veins. 

 From the very extremity of the root fprings one frond, a 

 httle fmaller than the reft, but of a fimilar ftrufture, except 

 that its fegments are nearly all entire at the margins, and 

 bear on their backs a denfe affemblage of minute chefnut- 

 coloured capfules, fome few of the upper fegments only, 

 with the point, being naked and ferrated. By the figure, 

 this fern would be judged a Blechnum, and pofiibly it 

 might, if examined in a young ftate, prove to be fuch, the 

 capfules extending over the leaf at an advanced period 

 only, when the involucrum is often reflexed, or obliterated ; 

 but as no botanift, befides Plumier, appears to have feen 

 the plant, we muft rely on his account of the matter, and 

 he very precifely fays the back of this fertile frond is at 

 firft, as it were, chagreen'd, and chefnut-coloured, being 

 fubfequently entirely covered with fine duft, of the fame 

 hue. 



The others of this feftion are, A. lepidopteris of Langf- 

 dorff and Fifcher, Ic. Fil. t. 2, from Brafil ; and A. brun- 

 neum of Willdenow, from the Caraccas. 



Seft. 5. Frond pinnate. Fifteen fpecies, befides one of 

 Mr. Brown's. 



A. bifurcatum. Slender Forked Acroftichum. Willd. 

 n. 35. Swartz Syn. Fil. 12. " Schkuhr Crypt, t. 2. 

 f. 3." (Ofmunda bifurcata ; Jacq. Coll. v. 3. 282. t. 20.. 

 f. 4. Filicula corniculata infulae Sanftx Helense ; Pluk. 

 Mant. 83. Phyt. t. 350. f. 4.) — Fronds pinnate ; leaflets 

 linear, deeply divided, fpreading : thofe of the fertile 

 fronds rounded ; the lower ones more or lefs ternate ; upper 



folitary Native of St. Helena and the Weft Indies. 



A flender dehcate fern, aUied in habit to A. quercifoUum, 

 defcribed in the third feftion, but much fmaller, and with 

 very different barren leaflets. Its height is about fix inches ; 

 the flalis wiry, or almoft capillary. 



A. forbifolium. Service-leaved Acroftichum. Linn. Sp. 

 PI. 1526. Willd. n. 38. Ait. n. 4. ( Onoclea forbifoha ; 

 Swartz Syn. Fil. 112. Fihx fcandens latifolia ferrata ; 

 Plum. Amer. 8. t. 1 2. Lingua cervina fcandens, fohis 



laurinis 



